If Christ himself were to ask you to “deny yourself and take up your cross each day and follow me,” how would you respond? As Christians we desire to follow the teachings of Christ; we wish to follow his example. However, this desire to follow him may be limited by our mundane preferences and aspirations. It is very difficult to go against currently prevailing values and culture and to go out of our comfort zone and give up what is agreeable and satisfying for us.
If we truly wish to follow Christ, his instructions are very clear: “Deny yourself and take up your cross each day and follow me.” Hopefully our love for Christ would prevail and motivate us to follow him as he is.
We cannot serve two masters. We cannot be like Christ if we are materialistic and worldly. To imitate him means to love as he did in his service of others, thinking more of others than ourselves.
They say that at their studies at the University of Paris, St. Ignatius of Loyola transformed the brilliant Francis Xavier with the repeated question and warning given in today’s Gospel reading, “What does it profit you to gain the whole world while you destroy or damage yourself?” Following Christ and St. Ignatius, Francis gave up a promising university career and emptied himself to bring Christ to the Indies. In losing his life, Francis saved it and saved many others.
